Common Core--8th Grade

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8-1 Literary Texts—Urban Settings in America

Poems
Short Stories
(Note: These are used again in unit 2.)
  • American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults (Lori Carlson) (L830)
  • America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories (Anne Mazer) (L870)
  • Join In: Multiethnic Short Stories (Donald R. Gallo) (L740)
Stories
  • The Great Fire (Jim Murphy) (E) (L1130)
  • KiKi Strike: Inside the Shadow City (Kirsten Miller) (L890)
  • The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)(L790)
  • All of the Above (Shelley Pearsall)
  • A Long Way from Chicago: A Novel in Stories (Richard Peck) [easy to read] (L750)
  • Bag in the Wind (Ted Kooser and Barry Root) (easier)
  • The King of Dragons (Carol Fenner) (easier) (L820)
Picture Books (Introductory Material)
  • City By Numbers (Stephen T. Johnson)

Informational Texts
Informational Text
  • The Building of Manhattan (Donald Mackay) (E)
  • Skyscraper (Lynn Curlee) (L1200)
  • The New York Subways (Great Building Featsseries) (Lesley DuTemple) (L1100)
  • New York (This Land is Your Land series) (Ann Heinrichs)
  • September 11, 2001: Attack on New York City: Interviews and Accounts (Wilborn Hampton) (L1060)
  • September 11, 2001 (Cornerstones of Freedom, Second Series) (Andrew Santella) (L890)
  • "The Evolution of the Grocery Bag" (American Scholar Magazine, Autumn 2003) (Henry Petroski) (E) (complete article available in EBSCO, Pioneer Library)
  • America’s Top 10 Cities(Jenny E. Tesar)(LG880)
  • An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Jim Murphy) (EA) (RL8.9)

Art, Music, and Media
Media

8-2 Literary Texts—Rural Settings in North America: “It Happened in the Country”
Stories
Rural United States
  • Travels with Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck) (E) (L1010)
  • This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie (Elizabeth Partridge) (E) (L1020)
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) (E) (750)
  • Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (Mildred D. Taylor) (E) (L 920)
  • The Land (Mildred D. Taylor) (L760)
  • Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck) (L630)
  • The Last of the Mohicans (James Fenimore Cooper) (L1350)
  • Shane (Jack Schaefer) (L870)
  • The Daybreakers (The Sackett series) (Louis L'Amour) (L930)
Rural North America
  • Barrio Boy (Ernesto Galarza)(L1140)
  • The Incredible Journey (Sheila Burnford) (L1320)
Poems
Short Stories
(Note: These were also used in unit 1.)
  • American Eyes: New Asian-American Short Stories for Young Adults (Lori Carlson) (L830)
  • America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories (Anne Mazer) (L870)
  • Join In: Multiethnic Short Stories (Donald R. Gallo) (L740)
Picture Books (Introductory Material)
  • A Mountain Alphabet (Margriet Ruurs)
  • B is for Big Sky Country: A Montana Alphabet (Sneed B. Collard, III and Joanna Yardley)
  • P is for Piñata: A Mexico Alphabet (Tony Johnston)

Informational Texts
Informational Text
Rural United States
  • The Alamo (Cornerstones of Freedom, Second Series) (Tom McGowen) (L930)
  • African-Americans in the Old West (Cornerstones of Freedom series) (Tom McGowen) (L790)
  • Trail of Tears (Cornerstones of Freedom series) (R. Conrad Stein) (1000)
  • Wild Horses I Have Known (Hope Ryden) (L1060)
  • Wildflowers Around the Year (Hope Ryden)
American Science/Technical Subjects
  • California Invasive Plant Council (Invasive Plant Inventory) (E)
  • Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet out of Idaho (Jon Katz) (E) (L1070)
  • “The Marginal World” (1955) in The Edge of the Sea (Rachel Carson) (L1138)
North America
  • Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves (Farley Mowat) (L1330)
  • One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in Mexico (Guillermo Garcia Oropeza and Cristobal Garcia Sanchez)
Additional Resources
  • History of Landscape Painting

Art, Music, and Media
Art

8-3 Literary Texts—Looking Back on America
Poems
Stories (Historical Fiction, From Some Non-Traditional Perspectives)
  • George vs. George: The American Revolution As Seen from Both Sides (Rosalyn Schanzer) (L1120)
  • 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving (I Am American) (Catherine O"Neill Grace)(L1040)
  • Cast Two Shadows: The American Revolution in the South (Great Episodes) (Ann Rinaldi) (L610)
  • 33 Things Every Girl Should Know About Women's History: From Suffragettes to Skirt Lengths to the E.R.A. (Tonya Bolden) (RL8.3)
  • Good Women of a Well-Blessed Land: Women's Lives in Colonial America (Brandon Marie Mailler) (L950)
  • Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (Sarah L. Delaney and A. Elizabeth Delany) (L890)
  • We Were There, Too!: Young People in U.S. History (Phillip M. Hoose) (RL7.1)
  • The Boys’ War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War (Jim Murphy) (EA) (L950)
  • Girls: A History of Growing Up Female in America (Penny Colman) (L1020)
  • Johnny Tremain (Esther Forbes) (easier to read) (L1040)
  • America’s Paul Revere (Esther Forbes and Lynd Ward) (easier to read) (L1000)
  • Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two (Joseph Bruchac) (easier to read) (L910)
  • The Year of the Hangman (Gary Blackwood) (easier to read) (L820)

Informational Texts
Picture Books (Introductory Material)
  • We the People (Peter Spier)
Informational Text
  • "Letter on Thomas Jefferson" (John Adams) (E)
  • Preamble to the United States Constitution (1787) (E)
  • First Amendment to the United States Constitution (1791) (E)
  • The Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution (Linda R. Monk) (E)
  • Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (Russell Freedman) (E) (L1110)
  • The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence (Marc Aronson) (L1180)
  • The American Revolutionaries: A History in Their Own Words 1750-1800 (Milton Meltzer) (L11220)
  • Lincoln: A Photobiography (Russell Freedman) (L1110)
  • We Shall Not Be Moved: The Women's Factory Strike of 1909 (Joan Dash) (L1170)
  • Day of Infamy, 60th Anniversary: The Classic Account of the Bombing of Pearl Harbor (Walter Lord) (EA)
  • The Making Of America (Robert D. Johnston) (L1160)
Biographies
  • George Washington, Spymaster: How the Americans Outspied the British and Won the Revolutionary War (Thomas B. Allen) (L1100)
  • Tell All the Children Our Story: Memories and Mementos of Being Young and Black in America (Tonya Bolden) (L1130)
  • The Signers: The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence (Dennis Brindell Fradin)

Art, Music, and Media
Art

8-4 Literary Texts—Authors and Artists
Stories
  • From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg) (L700)
  • Leaving Eldorado (Joann Mazzio) (L730)
  • Talking With Tebe: Clementine Hunter, Memory Artist (Mary E. Lyons) (easier)
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce) (advanced) (L1120)
Poems
  • Is This Forever, or What?: Poems & Paintings from Texas (Naomi Shihab Nye) (RL6.5)
Picture Books (Introductory Material)
  • Museum ABC (NY Metropolitan Museum of Art) (RL1.1)
  • Museum Shapes (NY Metropolitan Museum of Art) (RL2.0)

Informational Texts
Biographies
Artists
  • Artist to Artist: 23 Major Illustrators Talk to Children About Their Art (Eric Carle, Mitsumasa Anno, and Quentin Blake) (RL7.2)
  • Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist (Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan) (E) (L1100)
  • Book of Black Heroes: Great Women in the Struggle (Tayomi Igus) (L1090)
  • Norman Rockwell: Storyteller with a Brush (Beverly Gherman)(L980)
  • Sparky: The Life and Art of Charles Schulz (Beverly Gherman) (L960)
  • Andy Warhol, Prince of Pop (Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan) (L1120)
  • A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and their Paths to the Caldecott Medal (Leonard S. Marcus)
  • Marc Chagall (Artists in Their Time series) (Jude Welton) (L1070)
  • Mary Cassatt: Portrait of an American Impressionist (Tom Streissguth) (L1080)
  • Vincent Van Gogh: Sunflowers and Swirly Stars (Smart About Art series) (Brad Buck and Joan Holub) [easier to read]
  • Henri Matisse: Drawing with Scissors (Smart About Art series) (Jane O'Connor and Jessie Hartland) [easier to read] (L549)
  • Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules (Smart About Art series) (True Kelley) [easier to read] (L562)
  • The Lives of the Artists (Giorgio Vasari), excerpt on Michelangelo or Leonardo [advanced readers] (L1710)
Authors
  • Maya Angelou (Just the Facts Biographies) (L. Patricia Kite) (L1060)
  • Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women (Cornelia Meigs) (L1150)
  • Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon (Leonard S. Marcus) (L1340)
  • Mark Twain (Just the Facts Biographies) (Susan Bivin Aller) (L1040)
  • Bram Stoker: The Man Who Wrote Dracula (Great Life Stories) (Steven Otfinoski) (L1160)
  • Aung San Suu Kyi: Fearless Voice of Burma (Whitney Stewart) (L1070)

Informational Text
Art
  • A Short Walk Around the Pyramids & Through the World of Art (Philip M. Isaacson) (E) (L1110)
  • Smithsonian Q&A: American Art and Artists: The Ultimate Question & Answer Book (Tricia Wright)
Pictorial History
  • Buffalo Hunt (Russell Freedman) (EA) (L1000)
  • The Buffalo and the Indians: A Shared Destiny (Dorothy Hinshaw Patent) (L1120)

Art, Music, and Media
Art
Prompt: How do painters use perspective to engage viewers in their work?

8-5 Literary Texts—Dramatically Speaking

Plays
  • Sorry, Wrong Number (Lucille Fletcher) (E)
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream (William Shakespeare; adapted by Diana Stewart and illustrated by Charles Shaw) (L1302)
  • Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (Zora Neale Hurston)
  • The Colored Museum (George C. Wolfe)
  • Famous Americans: 22 Short Plays for the Classroom, Grades 4-8 (Liza Schafter, ed.)
Speeches
Poems
  • “A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long” in Acolytes: Poems by Nikki Giovanni (Nikki Giovanni) (E)
  • “The Book of Questions” (Pablo Neruda) (E)
  • “Macavity” (T.S. Eliot)
Music Lyrics
  • “Macavity,” from Cats (Andrew Lloyd Webber)
Stories
  • King of Shadows (Susan Cooper) (EA) (L1010)

Informational Texts
Biographies
Playwrights
  • Sorrow's Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston (Great Achievers series) (Mary E. Lyons) (L1040)
  • The Play's the Thing: A Story About William Shakespeare (Creative Minds Biographies) (Ruth Turk) (L1060)
  • Hitchcock on Hitchcock: Selected Writings and Interviews(Alfred Hitchcock)
Public Figures
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Russell Freedman) (L1070)
  • Barbara Jordan: Voice of Democracy (Book Report Biography) (Lisa Renee Rhodes)
Poets
Videographies
  • Spirit to Spirit: Nikki Giovanni (1988)

Art, Music, and Media
Media
  • Sorry, Wrong Number (1948)
  • Dial M for Murder (1954)
  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)
  • Cats (PBS Great Performances) (1998)

8-6 Literary Texts—“The Road Not Taken”
Poems
  • "The Road Not Taken" (Robert Frost) (E)
  • Things I Have To Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls (Betsy Franco)
  • Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming: Stories and Poems by American Indian Teens and Young Adults (Annette Piña Ochoa, Betsy Franco, and Traci L. Gourdine)
Stories
  • Little Women(Louisa May Alcott) (E) (L1052)
  • I, Juan De Pareja (Elizabeth Borton de Trevino) (L1100)
  • Lord of the Flies (William Golding) (L770)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway) (L940)
  • Gulliver’s Travels(Jonathan Swift) (L1220--Oxford University Press)
  • The Sea-Wolf (Oxford World's Classics Edition) (Jack London) (L1020)
  • Rebecca (Daphne du Maurier) (L880)
  • American Dragons: Twenty-Five Asian American Voices (Laurence Yep) (EA) (L990)
  • The Color of My Words (Lynn Joseph) (easier) (L840)
  • Children of the River (Linda Crew) (easier) (L700)
  • Amos Fortune, Free Man (Elizabeth Yates) (easier) (L1090)
  • The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) (easier) (L750)

Informational Texts
Science/Technical Subjects
  • “Trek 7, The Fractal Pond Race” (from Math Trek: Adventures in the Math Zone) (Ivars Peterson and Nancy Henderson) (E)

Art, Music, and Media
Media
  • Little Women (1949)
  • Little Women (1994)
  • Lord of the Flies (1990)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (1990)
  • Gulliver’s Travels (1996)
  • The Sea Wolf (1941)
Art